CHAP. 1 Pet. i. 23. two edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts 9. The word of God is incorruptible, and liveth and abideth forever; but the Bible is not incorruptible, nor doth it abide forever. And if all the Scriptures and books on earth were consumed, the Word Eph. vi. of God would still be the same quickening sword of the Spirit. Therefore they are greatly deceived, who imagine that the Scriptures are the Word of God; there is no such idea communicated, in any part of the Scriptures, from beginning to end. 27. 10. The scripture saith," Ye shall not surely die :" but this was not the Word of God, but the word of the Serpent. It is written, Make thee an ark of gopher-wood. This was the word of God spoken to Noah, but it was not the word of God to any other person under heaven; and so of many other passages. 11. The Scriptures contain an account of the Word of God in different ages, and of the sayings of wicked men, and of righteous men; the sayings of true and false prophets-of honest men and hypocrites, and the testimonies of true and false witnesses; and who can be so blind as to imagine that all this record of good and evil, can either be the Word of God, or a rule of faith and practice? 12. According to the true testimony of the Scripture, the Word of God always abode in a man of God, as a quickening Spirit, by which he was moved to utter, or write such things as God chose to reveal; and what was thus uttered or written, might be perverted or destroyed, or the man of God might be put to death; but the quickening Spirit, the Word which liveth and abideth forever, could never be altered, perverted nor destroyed, but would always come forth, and appear again in others. 13. Thus, from one dispensation to another, the word of God, and the contrary principle which rose against it, in man, continued to increase the Scriptures; and those writings, which had been acknowledged before as a record of truth, were used in confirmation of every present work of God, by such as were in it, and had the Word of a living testimony. 1 CHAP. X. 14. And hence the Scriptures, in their proper use, could never be given or administered to mankind but by inspiration of God: neither could they be profita- 2 Tim.. ble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, or in- 18, 17. struction in righteousness, but through the man of God, who had the Word of God living and abiding in him, by which he was perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Luke 2, 3. 15. Hence it was that Christ Jesus expounded unto his disciples, in all the scriptures, the things con- xxiv. 27. cerning himself. And the apostle, as his manner was, reasoned out of the scriptures, alledging that Acts xvi. Christ must needs have suffered; but it was a very small part of what Jesus taught, or the apostles reasoned, that is recorded; yet from a misunderstanding of what little was recorded, some wrested those writings to their own destruction, as they did the other scriptures, 16. From all which there appears a manifest distinction between the word of God, and the Scriptures; and notwithstanding those who receive the word of God as their guide, are led according to the scriptures; yet it is not in word only, but in power, such as the scriptures never could communicate. It must be granted by all, that the spirit which inspired the matter of the sacred writings, is greater than those writings, and is therefore the living and true guide into all truth, which was but in part written. 17. The command of God to Noah respecting the ark, could be no rule of conduct to Abraham; but the word of God which came to him, must be his rule, and in obedience to that alone, could he be justified. Likewise the command of God to Abraham, to offer up a human sacrifice, could be no rule to Moses, nor to any other person under heaven. 18. What was commanded through Moses to the children of Israel, was commanded to them and to no other nation upon earth. Besides, a thousand things were commanded to individuals, which were binding on no other person but those to whom the command was given. 19. It must argue the most extreme ignorance in any one, to suppose that what was expressly reyeal Gg g X. CHAP. ed and enjoined on one nation or individual, as their duty, was equally binding on all mankind in every succeeding age and nation. Gen. vi. Isai. xx. 8. 20. Because Noah was commanded to build an ark, must all mankind build arks? Because the prophet Isaiah was commanded to walk naked and burefoot, for a sign unto Egypt and Ethiopia, were ali mankind to follow his example, without regard to Ezek. iv. heat or cold, or any special command? Because the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to prepare his bread with dung, is this a universal rule for others? Or is every man obliged to take a wife of whoredoms, and to beget children of whoredoms, because the prophet Hosea was commanded so to do? 12. Hosea i. 2. Heb. vi. 28. 2 Cor. iii. 14. 21. What greater deception could Antichrist possibly impose upon mankind, in order to blind their eyes to the true revelation of God, than to pretend that the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament (as they are called) are the only rule to direct us," and under this pretence to reject the testimony of present living witnesses? 22. God never was beholden to letters, as the only means of revealing his will; but he that formed the soul of man, can also form, in that soul, a conviction of his will. And nothing but the ridiculous doctrine that God actually died, could ever have given occasion to the blind error of the Antichristian world, that the Bible was his Last Will and Testament, and the priests his executors and administrators. 23. The oath and covenant of God, (which al-ways stood between two immutable agents, in which it was impossible for God to fail of the accomplishment of his purpose,) could furnish a hope, as an anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast, which entered into that within the vail. 24. But in the reading of the Old Testament, the vail was still upon the heart: and although it was rent in the first appearing of Christ, yet that vail remained untaken away; and therefore, until the vail was fully removed, in the second appearing of Christ, the Scriptures could never be fully understood, nor could the very things themselves, to which the promises alluded, be fully revealed: nor could even the X. form of the oath be kept uncorrupted through the CHAP. dark reign of Antichrist. 25. Certain it is, that the Scriptures have not only been misunderstood, but have been grossly perverted, and forced out of their true sense, and abused to the purpose of misrepresenting the true character and purpose of God, and all his designs and dispensations to man. In confirmation of this truth, we need but look to the numerous divided sectaries now upon earth, who, for ages, have been contending about the sense of the Scriptures, and shedding each other's blood in defence of their respective opinions. 26. By establishing the Scriptures as the word of God, for all future ages, the most inconsistent ideas have been formed of the Divine goodness; while the comments and precepts of men have prevailed, instead of the living Word; and a total ignorance of the spiritual world, instead of the knowledge of the true and quickening Spirit of revelation: which is particularly manifest in that horrid and blasphemous doctrine of "eternal and unconditional decrees." 27. By this unreasonable doctrine, millions, who never had the offer of a Saviour, have been reprobas ted and doomed to final perdition, because they unhappily came into the world before the coming of Christ, or lived remote from where his nanie was named. 28. How far are the sacred Scriptures from once intimating that souls, in all ages, were destined im-mediately to their unchangeable eternity as they passed out of the mortal scenes of this momentary life! How far from intimating, that the small glimmerings of Divine light, which nations in dark ages enjoyed for a moment, contained all that they should ever enjoy, or that they were fixed in a state unalterable, and yet reserved for a final settlement with eternal justice! 29. But on the contrary, those sacred records of inspired truth, as far as they ever were believed without prejudice, and understood without the dark covering of false systems, have allured the senses of mankind towards a world of Spirits, from whence their sacred light was inspired: a world real and X. CHAP. substantial, and only invisible by reason of human depravity, and the thick clouds of darkness occasioned by sin. So that as the Lord liveth, and as the soul liveth, those that have passed out of this present world are not more justly judged to be dead, than those who remain in it. 13. 30. Whatever conjectures may be formed concerning the temporal judgments of God upon the wicked in past ages, certain it is, that the Scriptures most pointedly discard the idea of a final judgment being passed on any soul before the mystery of God is finished by the appearing and work of Christ. 31. And whatever may be understood concerning any one's ascending into heaven, yet Christ, who deJohn scended from heaven, testified, saying, No man hath ascended up to heaven. And Peter, immediately after he received the Holy Ghost, bore a similar testiActsä. 34 mony, saying, David is not ascended into the heavens: and St. Paul abundantly proves, in his Epistle to the Rem xi Romans, that there was no difference between Jew and Greek, but that God concluded them all in unbe lief, that he might have mercy upon all. 32. 32. The old world, the inhabitants of Sodom, and the unbelieving Jews, and many other nations, have been systematically fixed and bound in chains of eter nal darkness, by men more wicked and beastly than they. But who knew their state the best, the inventors of human systems, or the Son of God, who had Luke si. the keys of death and heli? He testified, saying, The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: and also, that it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city which rejected his testimony. 22. Mark vi. 11. See Isai. ix. 18-25. 49-63. 33. Christ Jesus, who was before all worlds, in Eze point of dignity and spiritual travel, before whom they all lay naked and open to view, did not confine his labours to a little flock of believers, in visible bodies on this globe. The thought is too mean for any rational being, and is nothing short of tempting the Almighty, and limiting the Holy One. 34. The apostles knew better, and witnessed that he had opened the way to the city of the living God. |